we have born the Image of the Earthy have lived in such a Body as Adam had so we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly i.e. We shall have such glorious heavenly Bodies at the Resurrection as Christ now has For flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Flesh and Blood such as now we carry about with us Bodies that cannot live without food and which by reason of the weakness and imperfection of their Senses are oftentimes pained by that which is their pleasure But what is corruptible must put on incorruption and these vile Bodies shall be changed and fashioned like to Christ's glorious Body Phil. 3.21 i.e. Such as his Body is such shall ours be discharged of all that is their burden and shame or that creates vexation or uneasiness here and improved to that height in all its Powers that we who cannot bear the light of the Sun when it travels in its strength whose Eyes water and are offended when too much light pours in upon them shall be enabled to live in such glory as is not yet revealed and to walk in that inaccessible Light to which no mortal Eye can approach This Change is express'd in Scripture by our rising with spiritual Bodies and bearing the Image of the Heavenly which does not mean that our Earthly Bodies shall be turned into Spirits For then the life we should be raised to would not be of the same nature with that which we now live i.e. It would not consist in the vital Union of a Soul and a Body but of two Spirits For a Body turned into a Spirit is no Body But now that which the Scriptures teach us concerning a Resurrection is That our Bodies shall come out of their Graves and that we shall have the same Bodies as well as the same Souls though improv'd in their capacities and qualities That the life the Resurrection is designed to restore us is the life we lose because it is styled the Resurrection of the Dead which could not be if it be a Body turned into a Spirit that our Souls shall be united to For then the Resurrection would not unite it to a Body at all i.e. It would not give us the life of a Man which is the life that Death deprives us of They who contend for such a Rarefaction of our Bodies into Spirits tell us That we shall have the agility and subtilty of Spirits so as to be able to penetrate Bodies and to be in a place not as we are now by filling it but as Angels are who do not exclude any Body thence by being there And this they suppose is the Nature of Christ's glorious Body which is the pattern after which the Resurrection will fashion ours For to this purpose they insist upon that Text of St. John which tells us That our Saviour enter'd into the room where the Disciples were met together when the Doors were shut As if St. John's meaning was That he had passed through the Doors in the same manner as a Spirit does But now the Evangelist saith no such thing nor do I see how any such thing can be concluded from what he does say The Words of the Evangelist are these Then the same day at evening when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst Joh. 20.19 In which he only tells us the time when but nothing of the manner how he appeared whether by passing through or opening the Door or any other way That he came in the Evening when the Doors were shut i.e. At that time of the night when according to the Custom of the Jews who were not wont saith Musculus to shut their doors in the day-time the Doors were shut Or if they give an account of such a Miraculous way of appearing as surprized the Disciples this does not necessarily oblige us to believe that he came into the room as a Spirit by piercing through the Doors For he might present himself among them in a surprizing manner though he did not pierce the Door neither is it known that Spirits do thus appear So that it is no proof that the Resurrection did turn his Body into a Spirit because he enter'd a room at that time in the Evening when the Jews shut up their Doors unless it be made appear that he could no other way enter it but by passing through the Door and that Spirits are wont thus to enter But that our Saviour's Body was not turned into a Spirit and that the Miracle of his Appearance did not lie in his passing through the Door he himself gave his Disciples a sensible proof at this very time when he show'd them his Hands and his Side and bid them Handle him and see that it was he himself i.e. The Man Christ Jesus that was crucified and no Spirit as they believed him to be because a Spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luk. 24.39 When therefore the Scriptures tell us that we shall rise with spiritual bodies the meaning is that our Bodies when the Resurrection has restored us them shall not need those refreshments of Meat and Drink and Sleep that now they stand in need of but shall live as Spirits do without putting us to charge and labour to maintain their life And this our Blessed Lord teaches us in his Answer to the captious Question of the Sadducees whose Wife the Woman whom the seven Brethren had successively married should be at the Resurrection The children of this World where one Generation goes and another comes marry and are given in marriage because in a World where we are mortal this is the only way we have of preserving our Names and of living when we are dead But they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more but are equal to the Angels Luk. 20.34 35 36. i.e. They are equal to the Angels in this That they shall die no more and since they are in this equal to them they shall live like them For because they themselves will be Immortal the reason of Marrying and giving in Marriage will be at an end And indeed there is a necessity that our Bodies should be thus changed because the World we shall then live in will not be the same as this is For whether we shall ascend to the highest Heavens where Christ now sits at the right hand of God or whether we shall have our Habitations in that new Earth that will be made after this old one which has been the Seat of so much Wickedness is destroy'd it is requisite our Bodies should be otherwise fashion'd than now they are that they may be suited to the Nature of the place we shall dwell in It is not a thing that a Christian can find any thing incredible in that our Bodies after they are raised and
promising we shall come out of our Graves and live again after Death makes a Trial of us whether we can believe as Abraham did against Hope This is it that makes our Believing necessary and it is for this Reason that the Gospel does lay so much stress upon our believing in the Son who is the Person that has received Power to give us our Lives again For hereby God proves us whether we dare trust the concerns of our Life in the hands of his Son and are persuaded that he who undertook to restore Life and Immortality to us can raise us up at the last day In this Promise does mainly consist the Grace of the Gospel for it at once gives us a view of all that Mercy we have by Jesus Christ For it is an evident proof that he who will raise us up again has procured us a Pardon of those Offences which have brought Death into the World and that the God who has sentenced us to Death is fully satisfied with the Atonement that is made For it is not possible we should rise so long as that Wrath that kills us does lie upon us or the Offences for which we die are unremitted In Discoursing then of this Doctrine which is so considerable an Article of our Faith and makes Christianity so acceptable to Mortal Creatures I shall 1. Consider what we are to understand by it 2. What Assurance we have that we shall rise again A DISCOURSE OF THE Resurrection c. PART I. The Import of the Resurrection consider'd THE Doctrine of the Resurrection is so plainly deliver'd in the Sacred Writings of the New Testament that there are no sort of Christians but in some sense or other do assert a Resurrection or however would not be believ'd to deny a Doctrine that is so plainly deliver'd But yet there have been and still are such as do not believe such a Resurrection as the Gospel speaks of St. Paul tells us of Hymenoeus and Philetus that they erred concerning this Truth saying That the Resurrection was already past 2 Tim. 2.18 And there are still such as with them believe no other Resurrection but that which consists in the Renovation of the Soul which St. Paul speaks of Rom. 6.4 5. when he styles our walking in newness of life a being planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection But now they who understand nothing more by the Resurrection but our Baptismal Renovation or such a Change of our Conversation from a sinfull to a Holy way of living which the Apostle makes our imitating Christ's Resurrection to consist in do not believe the Resurrection of the Body which is the Resurrection that we are taught to expect And because the Scriptures speak of the Resurrection of the Body others by the Resurrection of the Body understand no more but our living again in a Body after Death not the same Body that dies but a heavenly Body But neither does this Notion of a Resurrection answer to the account that the Scriptures give us of it And therefore since there are such mistaken Notions of a Resurrection among Men it is necessary we should consider the true Nature and Import os it And 1. It implies that we shall return from a state of Death and live again or that the Soul which is separated from the Body by Death shall return from its state of Separation to live in a Body again 2. That we shall live in these very Bodies that are mortal and die 3. That we shall begin then to enter upon an Immortal life CHAP. I. 1. IT implies That we shall return from a state of Death and live again Or that the Soul which is separated from the Body by Death shall return from its state of Separation to live in a Body again When we die these Earthly Tabernacles fall down and go to the Dust and our Souls which dwelt in them take their flight and go to the place of unbodied Spirits This separation of Soul and Body is an effect of the Divine displeasure upon us It is to deprive us of that Particle of his Breath or Spirit by which when he made Man he became a living Soul Gen. 2.7 And accordingly when he resolved upon the Destruction of the Old World he threatned them That his Spirit should not always abide in those Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 6.3 i.e. Should not always lodge or inhabit in the Bodies of those Men as in a sheath as it is in the Original My Spirit i.e. The Breath or Soul that I breathed into Man when I made him But I will surely punish them with Death by taking from them the Spirit which they abuse by making it a Servant to the Flesh And now if this be a true account of the Nature of Death it is plain that in the Notion of it it does not imply either a Destruction or that sleep of the Soul which some Men dream of For all that this denunciation teaches us is That God when we die does withdraw the Soul out of the Body And this he may do though he assign it another place to live in after he has taken it out of the Body Now this we may much rather conclude from this Threat than that it is put into a state of Insensibility by Death For it being a Threat to deprive Man of the Blessing he had given him when he made him the most Natural sense must be this I will punish these Men by taking away their Souls from them and making them live a Vagabond life out of the Body which I designed at first to be their proper habitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall not abide or dwell in the Body but it shall still abide or live though out of the Body And this notion of Death the Scripture does in other places take notice of As in that mournfull Saying of Jacob Gen. 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall go to Hades to my Son mourning i.e. To the place where his Soul was gone for he believed that his Body was devoured by wild Beasts And the hopes of dying the same Death could not be the thing that he comforted himself withall So likewise that Expression of the Psalmist is to be understood Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption Psal 16.10 i.e. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hades the place where separate Souls live out of their Bodies nor my Body in the Grave And accordingly our blessed Lord told the converted Thief That that day he should be with him in Paradise which cannot be so understood as if he should that day go with him into Heaven because our Lord did not ascend to his Father till forty days after his Resurrection And therefore the Creed does not only teach us that he died and what manner of Death he died but that he was buried i.e. His Body was disposed of as the Dead Bodies of all other Men are and
that he went down into Hell i.e. During the time that his Body was in the Grave his Soul was in the place where separate Souls do live after Death But although the Soul when it ceases to live in the Body does still live yet when it leaves the Body we who consist of a Soul and a Body do die And so long as the Soul does live without its Body so long we are under the power of Death And even that Soul that still lives is in the state of the Dead So that the Resurrection which is design'd to be a Remedy of that Calamity Death is to us must be the freeing the Soul from that Vagabond state that the Displeasure of God makes it to suffer out of its Body It is the bringing the Soul that lives when we are dead out of that state where it lives in a preter-natural condition without its Body to live as the Soul of a Man was by God appointed to do when he breathed it into a Body of Flesh I call the separate state of our Souls a vagabond and preter-natural Condition because when they go out of the Body they leave their own proper Habitation and wander into unknown Regions And therefore St. Paul styles our being in the Body a being at home and when we die in his style we travel out of the Body or go abroad 2 Cor. 5. And according to the import of that Curse by reason of which we die and go out of the Body we should for ever like Vagabonds that leave their native Soil and roam about the World have continued abroad but that God in great Goodness to us has provided us a mercifull Saviour whose business it is to take care of our Souls when they leave their own Habitations and in his due time to bring them back again to their homes And therefore St. Paul though he speaks of this separate state as a thing no way desirable in it self That no Man how little reason soever he has to be in love with this World does groan for that he would be uncloathed v. 4. Yet considering the safe hands our Souls are committed to when they are abroad does upon that reason speak of this state as a thing much more Eligible than to stay always here in the Body though it is our home We are always confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord v. 6 8. i.e. Though we do leave our Habitations we are well pleased with our condition because we shall be under the immediate care of him who at the last will brng us out of this exiled State and restore us to our own Habitations again Hence the Resurrection is spoken of as our triumph over Hades that receptacle or prison of separate Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Hades where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 The Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell or Hades delivered up the Dead that were in them And Death and Hell or Hades were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.13 14. i.e. Death will deliver up our Bodies which lie imprison'd in the Grave and Hades will deliver up our Souls that are there imprison'd and then an Everlasting Being shall succeed The Resurrection then does not only respect our Bodies which see Corruption but that Immortal part of us which by Death is forced out of the Body and driven like an Exile to live from home in a foreign Country contrary to the Laws of its Nature For the Resurrection restores us that which Death deprives us of and brings back our Exiled Souls to their old native Dwellings Although the Resurrection will bring our Dead Bodies out of their Graves yet this is not all that we are to understand by the Resurrection because the raising a Dead Body to life will not be the raising the Man that died unless the same Soul and Spirit that was separated from it by Death be re-united with it again To breathe a New Soul into a Body that is raised out of the Dust is rather the creating a New Man than the raising an Old one For the same Man that died cannot be said to be raised to life again unless the Soul be brought out of its Prison as well as the Body out of its Grave For so long as the Soul is kept a Prisoner in the place where separate Soul live we are as much in the state of the Dead as while the Body does lie in the Grave This re-embodying the Soul that by Death is compell'd to quit the Habitation it is at first born with and to live abroad in an unknown Region is the thing in which our Conquest over Death does consist and consequently is the Resurrection that the Gospel speaks of 'T is true the Resurrection has most usually a respect to the Body and does denote its leaving its Prison whither it is conveyed But besides this the Holy Scriptures do speak of the Resurrection with a respect to the Soul and that alteration of its state when it shall of a separate Spirit become embodied a second time i.e. When it shall be brought out of its confinement and returned to its own Habitation This is the meaning of that place where the Sadducees are said to have denied the Resurrection i.e. They were as is plain from our Saviour's Answer persuaded that Death does as well reduce the Soul to nothing as the Body to Dust And that since after Death there is no part of us remains alive there is nothing lest to ground our hopes of a Resurrection upon because there is nothing of us left in respect of which the Resurrection will be a Blessing and consequently that there is no state of life to be expected after this because Death does not only dissolve but destroy the very Principles of our Constitution Our blessed Lord therefore to prove to them that there is a Resurrection makes use of an Argument that proves that the Soul is alive after Death and consequently that there is another state in which as Men we must live an Immortal life God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith our Saviour i.e. The Souls of the great Patriarchs are alive somewhere else God could not properly style himself The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and therefore they must rise again Wherein the strength of our Saviour's argument lies I shall not now enquire For it is enough to my present purpose that he proves there will be a Resurrection because the Soul is still alive For this implies that the Resurrection will not only bring the Body out of its Grave but the Soul out of its Prison and return it to its ancient Habitation Otherwise the Soul 's being alive after we are dead would no more prove a Resurrection than if
to a stupid contempt of it which is the method that bad Men grow fearless of it by this shows that Death is somewhat more than what our Bodies suffer by it Yet 2. It is not such a state of Insensibility as supposes the Soul as well as the Body to be laid in a profound sleep and that it is out of such a state of Silence that the Resurrection will awaken us For there is nothing more plainly taught us in all the Holy Scriptures than that the Soul does survive the Body and is in a state either of Happiness or Misery from the very time of its departure out of the Body For how else could God in any sense be styled the God of the living and not of the dead if there be no part of us that lives after Death For if the Soul as well as the Body falls asleep when Death puts an end to this lie and so continues to sleep as well as the Body till the Resurrection gives new life unto it the Soul is as much Dead as the Body till the Resurrection does quicken it again And if so God must be the God of the dead and not of the living till at the Resurrection he gives us new life And besides the Parable of Dives and Lazarus does prove that the Souls both of good and bad Men do live in another state after Death For how else could it be said that the one was carried into Abraham's Bosom and the other tormented in Hell if there were not two different States in which the good and bad do live after this life For if the Souls of all Men do sleep from the day of Death till that of the Resurrection then the Souls of Dives and Lazarus must have been in one and the same condition which the Parable does not suppose they were But 3. It is the haling the Soul out of its own proper Dwelling to a Prison or the banishing it from its own home to a strange unknown Region It is not the setting it at liberty by breaking down the Walls of its Prison which has been of old and still is a very prevailing Notion Sumus in his inclusi compagibus corporis Est enim Animus coelestis ex altissimo domicilio depressus quasi demersus in terram locum divinae Naturae aeternitatÃque contrarium saith Tully We are shut up within these fleshly Walls For the Soul was thrown down from its sublime Habitation and forced into an Earthly dwelling a place contrary to the Divinity and Eternity of its Nature which was the Opinion of Plato and his Followers who supposing a Pre-existence of the Soul taught it was thrust out of its Celestial Habitation into an Earthly Body for some fault and therefore that Death did but restore it to its ancient State by setting it at liberty from the Body So Hierocles discourses That it was by leaving the Fields of Vertue and Truth deplumed and thrust into an Earthly Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being banish'd Heaven and made a Vagabond upon Earth And therefore it is no wonder that they made light of Death which they supposed did set them at liberty and restored them to their first and most ancient way of living Ex vita discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo I go out of this life as from an Inn not from home Now according to this Notion of Life and Death we have infinitely more reason to be weary of Life than afraid of Death and to mourn the Birth rather than the Death of our friends But the case is quite otherwise if we take a view of Death without any respect had to those Considerations that Religion furnishes us with For there is nothing more dolefull no greater Calamity can befall a Man and therefore there is nothing that he has more reason to stand in awe of and tremble at It is so far from breaking open the doors of a Prison and restoring our Souls to their pristine liberty that it pulls down its House and drives it like an Exile from its native Soil to live in an unknown place after an unusual manner The Body is not its Prison but its House and Dwelling-place and when Death takes it hence it is not as from an Inn where it never intended to stay long but from the Habitation where it would fain live its Immortal life and where according to the appointment of our Creator it was designed to inhabit for ever Now that Death does mean thus much is plain from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is design'd to bring our Souls out of the Prison whither they are carried to live in a Body again which Doctrine God has made us acquainted with as a wonderfull Instance of his Mercy to us and that great Blessing which is to bear up our Minds against the Apprehensions of and sad Aversions we have to Death But now what Blessing would this be to us and what Comfort would it afford us if the restoring our Souls to their Bodies was to return them to a Prison and for ever to deprive them of their true and native Liberty This would be so far from being matter of joy and comfort to us that we should rise again that we had reason to look upon it as a Menace and bewail it as a Calamity as grievous as the Platonists suppose the first descent of the Soul into its Body to have been For what comfort can it be to us to know that our Souls after they are restored to their liberty if their separate condition be their true and most genuine way of living they shall be caged up again at last so as never to recover their liberty more But if it be an expression of abundant Mercy to us a matter for which we are bound to bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he has begotten us again to a lively hope of rising again by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we have no reason to think that Death does us a kindness by setting our Souls at liberty from the Body as from a Prison It is in one respect a kindness as we shall rise again and live in pure and immortal Bodies but consider'd in it self if the Resurrection will be a Blessing to us it is a Calamity we ought to dread for it imports an Execution of that frightfull Sentence by which we stand condemn'd to lose our Souls that Sentence that suffers not the Breath that God has breathed into us to abide with us So that we have as much reason to be afraid of Death as a Criminal has to dread a Jail or an Exiled person to lament his Misfortune when he is condemn'd to quit the Society of his friends and acquaintance to go into a strange Country perhaps to live among a Barbarous people the Customs and Manners of whom he is unacquainted with 2. We may hence observe what Death is now to us since we have the hopes of a
such delights as now we live in or because when we are once gone out of this World there is nothing more to be expected In either of these two cases a Man might be allowed to provide for this life with all the care and solicitude that he can without thinking of any other But if we must die and after Death must rise to Life again the same reason that obliges us to be carefull for this ought also to prevail with us to provide for another life We are very apt indeed to live here in this World as if we should never leave it i.e. While there is marrow in our bones and vigour in our spirits we are very apt to forget we shall die But yet there is no Man so ignorant or so insensible of the corruptible state we are at present in as to believe he never shall No the Graves they meet with in every Church-yard and the frequent Funerals of their friends or neighbours are so many irresistible Notices of their own Mortality and tell them the sad story that this lovely World they so much doat on and they must part This then is not the reason why Men live loosely but generally they who live wickedly are apt to persuade themselves that they shall never live again And though it is the illness of their Lives does drive them to this persuasion yet they discourse the matter as if the reason why they live no higher than this World was because they were certain there is no other And it is true that if they be right in their belief they are not much to be blamed for their way of living because if there be no other life but this a Man has nothing more to do than to enjoy this the best he can But then this is a tacit confession That if there be another life they ought not to live as they do because a sensual way of living can only be suited to a World that affords no other than sensible delights And then let this Man think with himself whether he does wisely to live so here as to put him out of conceit with another life when all his unwillingness to live again will not hinder him from returning to a new state of life Let him think whether his way of living be such as he can approve of and satisfie himself in when it makes him rather to chuse since he cannot avoid dying never to see nor hear any thing more than to rise and live again afterwards And if a wicked Man can upon no other score go on in his way with any tolerable ease but by wishing he may never see day again when once Death has closed his Eyes how can we chuse but think that a Resurrection to another life does in the opinion of this Man call for another course of life than what he now lives For if we we must rise and live again after this it is surely our interest and concern so to pass through this life as to carry along with us none of those sensual Inclinations and Affections as will not suffer us to live well in the next CHAP. II. The Resurrection as it denotes the raising our Bodies II. I Come now to consider the Resurrection as it imports our living again in these very Bodies A Resurrection is a restoring life to the Body that dies For if it was not the same Body that the Soul now lives in that it shall be united to again by the Resurrection it could not be called a Resurrection To believe that it shall inhabit a Body but not the same Body is to believe that God will make it a new Tabernacle but not erect and raise up the old one And how many subtilties soever Men of wanton Wits may frame to themselves to puzzle this Article of our Faith they ought to consider that they are undermining the very Doctrine of the Resurrection it self at the same time that they attempt to prove it impossible that the same Body should rise again But I shall not examine those curious Questions with which vain Men endeavour to perplex this Doctrine For since it is upon Revelation that the Certainty of it depends we are to have a Recourse to that Revelation that God has given us concerning it to understand the true import of it For what he has revealed he will do it is certain enough that he has power to do And if we know not how it can be done it is because we know not all that God can do 1. Then he has revealed that he will raise up these very Bodies again in which we now live and which see Corruption These Bodies I say which are the Instruments and Companions of our Souls in all the Actions and Labours of this life It is I know insisted on as a thing very congruous to Reason that the Body which is a partner with the Soul in its good or ill in this life should likewise share with it in the same in the life to come But this is a way of arguing that was not thought of till we had received the Notices of this Doctrine another way For the wise Heathens who believed the Soul's Immortality and that when it goes into the other World it is either adjudged to happiness or misery according to our Actions in this life never thought of this argument to persuade them into the belief of a Resurrection And it is very strange that not one of those great Men that have discours'd of the Rewards and Punishments of the other life should not think of this reasonableness that the Body should share with the Soul in these to inferr a Resurrection Neither is it easie to apprehend why it should be thought fit that a clod of Earth should have a reward or punishment for what is done when it can do nothing that is deserving of either I know it is fit and absolutely necessary the Body should be raised since the Man that does vertuously or wickedly must be rewarded accordingly But this Necessity cannot be made appear by any Congruity in the thing that the Body should partake with the Soul of its future Recompence but only from that Revelation that tells us we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body We must all appear we who now live in the Body and every one not the Soul only of every Man must receive the things done in the Body Therefore our Saviour tells us expressly That all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice Joh. 5.28 All that are in their Graves i.e. the same Men that are dead which cannot be true if the same Bodies be not raised that go to the Grave No Bodies go to the Grave but those we now live in and therefore the same Bodies must come out of their Graves otherwise we shall not rise the same Men we die nor will those that are in their Graves hear his voice For if it was
it must be as grievous a thing to be haled out of it to a dark Prison and a stinking Grave where the Body he loves must be a feast to Worms and Vermine and at last corrupt and perish never to live more as it is usually to persons born to plentifull fortunes to be turn'd out of their Houses where they were born and brought up or to see them tumbled into heaps and rubbish So that one would think that if it was only for the sake of his Body which he is so very tender of he should be as much over-joy'd to hear of a time when he shall receive his Body again as a poor Prisoner is when he has liberty given him to return home or he who has seen his House demolish'd by an Enemy to see it by the Charity of a friend to rise again out of its Ruins And so undoubtedly it is to every wise Man because it gratifies a very sensible desire in us and makes up the loss we sustain by dying For it is the general belief of Christians that the Soul after it is departed out of the Body though it be in a happy state as the Souls of good Men certainly are is not so perfectly happy as it will be when at the Resurrection it is united to its Body again Wherein the imperfection of its Happiness does consist or from what Reason it is that it is not so perfectly Happy as it will be then is not for us who know so little of the condition of separate Spirits and how they live to tell But why may we not suppose that it carries along with it into the other World a strong inclination toward the Body it has left behind which is either more or less violent as we either mortifie or indulge to it in this World And so long as such an inclination and desire is not satisfied it cannot be so compleatly Happy as it will be when it carries no unsatisfied desire in it This is certain that Death which divides the Soul from the Body does offer Violence to it and the separate state in which it lives afterwards is preter-natural And when it is rent from the Body against its own inclination why may it not retain an inclination to its own true and most natural way of living again I know indeed that the Souls of good Men by Faith and Resignation to the Divine Will do save themselves from that anguish and vexation that such a preter-natural way of living does vex the wicked Spirits of bad Men with For as they leave the World with a great deal of regret and many violent conflicts so it is very likely that they carry those Resentments for being forced out of a Body that they love along with them as are their torment But though the Patience and Resignation of good Men does make Death more tolerable and a separate state not to occasion that vexation to them as it does to the wicked yet it is the hopes of a Resurrection in them does overcome those natural Reluctancies to Death that are in us and persuades them with a constant Mind to bear with the loss of their Bodies for a time in Obedience to the Divine Appointment But had there been no such promise I do not see how any Man could be content to part with so considerable a part of himself as his Body for ever For in this case Death would be inflicted as a Curse and we should go out of the World as Offenders whom God is not reconciled to i.e. Such Offenders as must bear his Displeasure for ever So that however a good Man may with patience resign himself to the Will of God who has appointed that all Men shall die so long as he knows that God is his friend and has appointed a time too when he shall have his Body restored him again Yet it would be a great difficulty to compose his Mind to such a temper if after all his endeavour to please God he was for ever to lie under his displeasure If there was no Resurrection to be expected he would want the only Motive that could dispose his Mind to such a bearing Temper as will make his spearate State tolerable And although the hopes of rising again does quiet the good Man's Spirit under the loss of its Body yet during its separate State it must ratain a strong Desire towards its ancient Companion because to live in a Body is Man's natural way of living and because he needs a Consideration to bear up his Mind under the thoughts of parting with it But it is not the living in any Body that will satisfie this desire For the inclination that it carries with it into the other World is towards the Body it left behind And if it be not this Body that the Resurrection unites it to again how can this Inclination be laid and its desire of living in its own Body be satisfied by being put into a new Body The Resurrection by assuring us we shall live again does speak a great deal of comfort to us who naturally are afraid of and abhorr Death But it would not be half so comfortable to us as it is if it did not give us hopes of living in these very Bodies that we have taken a love to and are so loth to part with Now this is the great satisfaction that it gives us For it acquaints us that these two intimate and ancient Friends that are so hardly prevail'd upon to bid adieu to each other shall meet again never to part more The Soul is well acquainted with the Body it now lives in and has contracted such an intimacy with it that it is loth to leave it And that alone which can silence this dissatisfaction is the hopes of being united at the Resurrection to the Body it has already made trial of and has such an inclination to whereas an unknown Body can give no relief in the case because it is unknown what it shall be and how we shall live in it And how then ought we to rejoyce in hopes of the Resurrection which will restore us the very Bodies which we have such a fansie for This Doctrine should methinks be received by mortal Creatures with the greatest greediness even out of Love to our Bodies We take a great deal of pains with them now to nourish and sustain them to repair their decays and to keep them alive and yet for all this they must die And why should we not be overjoy'd with the thoughts of a Resurrection when we shall have the Bodies again that we have taken such a liking to 2. It is very requisite we should take that care of them now that we may rise with comfort and that when our Souls come to inhabit them again they may have a quiet and peaceable dwelling in them For otherwise the thoughts of rising again and living in these Bodies after Death will be so far from being comfortable that it will fill us with
of a Resurrection For the thoughts of a Resurrection can never be sufficient to fortifie our Minds against the Fears of Death if after we are risen again Death will still take its turn to carry us to our Graves For in this case there is nothing after Death to bear up our Minds against so great an Evil. But this is not the Life we shall rise to but a Life that Death shall have no more power over This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.54 55. And among all the other advantages of that Life we shall then enter upon St. John reckons this That there is no more Death Rev. 21.4 But the great Question is How we can be said to begin to live an Immortal Life then when the Soul that lives in these Bodies is an Immortal Principle now and does not lose its Life by being separated from the Body but does continue to live when the Body is returned to Dust To this I say that though the Soul be Immortal and does not cease to live after it has left the Body yet the Man that consisted of a Body and a Soul does And the Life that the Soul lives is not that Life which a Man by Dying loses For though the Soul be a principal part of us yet it is but one part and the Body is another and it is in the vital Union of these two parts that the Life of Man consists And as it is this Life that Death deprives us of so it is this Life that the Resurrection will restore us And this Life will then begin to be Immortal It is not the Soul that will then begin to be Immortal For Immortality is the privilege of this part of us even while it is now in the Body But the Immortal Life we shall then begin to live is the Life we now live only made Immortal i.e. When the Resurrection has united the Soul and Body together again this Union will never more be broken So that an Immortal Soul shall then live in an Immortal Body for ever And it is in this sense we are to understand the Scriptures when they speak of our putting on Immortality and the Gospels bringing Immortality and Life to light For if we consider the Immortality of the Soul that was a Principle acknowledg'd and believed long before the Gospel was preach'd So that it cannot be the making our Souls Immortal when it tells of our putting on Immortality Now is it the Soul's Immortality that is brought to light by the Gospel for that was known long before But the Immortality and Life that we owe our knowledge of to the Gospel is that indissoluble Union of Body and Soul which will begin at the Resurrection And now from hence we may observe 1. That it is then only we shall begin to live We date our Lives from the time we come into the World and reckon that we have lived through so many Ages of our Infancy our Childhood our Youth our Manhood and Old Age when we arrive to three or fourscore Years This is a Life that we account very long and when so many Years have not drawn it off we reckon it deserves a great deal of respect and reverence And yet all this Life which makes such a noise among us and is of such mighty repute with us is only the Dregs and Relicks of that Life which the Curse that is come upon us has taken from us That liveliness and vivacity that belong'd to innocent Man is sinn'd away and gone And the Spirits that are left us are the very Refuse and Bottom of what we were once stored with And because these serve to feed Life and are not run off sometimes till three or fourscore Years we persuade our selves that we live a great while And yet if we arrive to the utmost length of Life the truest account that can be given of it is this That we have been so many Years a Dying For the first step we take into the World is toward our Graves And though we live to see Thousands fall beside us and Ten thousand at our right hands before it come nigh us yet all that can be said of us is this That we die a more lingring Death than others And besides a Life of fourscore or a hundred Years is so short in comparison of that which is Eternal that it does not in the style of Scripture deserve the name of Life It is styled Vanity and compared to a shadow to instruct us that it has nothing of Reality in it And when it is once spent what is become of all those Years that we are said to live Though Man be so strong that he comes to fourscore Years yet is his strength then but labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away Psal 90.10 But when the Resurrection gives us Life again then it is that we shall in the most proper sense be born to live For then we shall receive all that spirit and vigour that we have lost so much Spirit that Eternity shall never waste it And if we account a Life of fourscore Years venerable how much Reverence ought we to have for a Life that has no Death at the end of it Now this is the Life we shall be born to and begin to live when at the Resurrection our Souls take possession of our Bodies again And could we but with steadiness enough apply our Minds to the consideration and meaning of Immortality this Life would appear so much like a Vapour or a suddain Flash that gives us no time to consider whether it be any thing or no as would abate of that respect and value we have for it For 't is sure we can then only be said to begin to live when we begin to feel our selves free from Corruption and the Approaches of Death 2. We shall then begin to live that Life we are appointed to For a mortal and corruptible Life was not that which God design'd and made us for But it is the Curse that Sin has let in upon us the Punishment God has subjected us to for Adam's Transgression By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin saith the Apostle Rom. 5.12 i.e. The Mortal state we are now in is owing to Adam's Disobedience For had not he disobey'd the Command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge we had not known what Death meant In his state of Innocency he was a Probationer for Immortality and the Law that threatned him with Death in case of his Disobedience did implicitly at least assure him of Immortality if he did not disobey For it implies that as while he was innocent he was not condemn'd to a Mortal condition so on the other hand he was not
that when they had eaten their Eyes were opened v. 7. But the mischief of the Temptation lay in this That they were prevailed upon to Eat of it before their time before they were prepared and qualified for it or fitted for so great a Benefit as was designed them in it And therefore it was that God turned them out of the Garden lest they should Eat likewise of the Tree of Life and live for ever i.e. Lest they should make themselves Immortal when by setting their Appetites at liberty they had made their improvements in Vertue more difficult than they would have been and when in the Condition they were in Immortality would have been no Blessing For I don't suppose that the Tree of Life was planted in Eden to repair the decays of a mortal Body but that by Eating of it they might be made Immortal when by a course in Vertue and Piety they were become fit for a Translation to that place where they should no more need Meat or Drink to support their Lives And therefore St. John tells us that in the New Jerusalem that glorious City we shall after the Resurrection dwell in for ever There is the Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the Healing of the Nations Rev. 22.2 i.e. Whose Fruit shall make us Immortal as the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise should have made Adam had he not disobey'd the Divine Command The Sum of all is this Adam was created in so sound and healthfull a State that Age and Infirmities could not Naturally have prevail'd over him But as he was not Naturally subject to Death so neither was he Created in an Immortal Condition But Life and Death were set before him and as he was a Probationer for Immortality so God having created him Innocent left it to his own choice whether he would live or die i.e. Whether by Obeying he would procure to himself when the time of his Tryal was over a grant to Eat of the Trees of Knowledge and of Life or whether by disobeying God he would be debarr'd of this privilege and instead of being translated to a state where he should live without Food as the Angels do be doom'd to a Life of Sorrow and Labour So that as Mortality was the Judgment that came upon him for his Sin so Immortality was the gift God would have bestow'd on him for his Obedience had he improved himself for it This then being that perfection of Life that God when he made Man innocent design'd him for The Resurrection 't is plain is design'd to restore us to that way of living that God in our Creation fitted us for For although Man was not created Immortal yet it is plain he was created for an Immortal Life because God put an Immortal Principle into these Bodies of Clay which now are Mortal For why should he unite two such Principles together and make it Natural for an Immortal Soul to live in a Body if he did not design they should live always together And if this was the way of living that Man was intended for in his Creation the Life that the Resurrection is designed to give us is the same Immortal Life that we were Created for For he that over-cometh i.e. maketh those Improvements in Vertue as Adam should have done shall after he is risen again for the confirming of Life to him eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 i.e. We shall be made Immortal as Adam should have been The Life we now live which is subject to Diseases and Death is not the Life that God gave us but the sorry Remains of that Life which he appointed us to It is only so much as has been left us But at the Resurrection we shall begin to live like Men. For then our Immortal Souls shall be united to Immortal Bodies And the Life we should have lived if we had never sinned will then Commence when Corruption and Mortality which are the Punishments of Sin shall be changed into Incorruption and Immortality which are the glorious Privileges of the Sons of God 3. We shall then be freed from the Reproach of Mortality and Corruption The Reproach I call it for there can be no greater Reproach to a Creature that was made for Immortality than to die And especially when we consider that Death is the Punishment of Sin and that we die for our Disobedience to our Creator and Soveraign Lord. In this case Death puts us to open shame in the sight of all the World We seem to have a Natural sense of the fault that is the occasion of it when we lament the Funerals of our Friends and Relations And the natural dread and horror of Death that is in all Men does express a mighty Regret that such a thing as Mortality and Corruption should belong to us who have an Immortal Principle within us We go out of the World like Criminals and can any thing grate more upon an ingenuous Mind than to think we die because we are under an offence and we condemned to die And had not our gracious Redeemer born our Shame for us and appeas'd the Wrath that is come upon us and made it a more easie thing to enter upon another state with what shame and horror with what confusion and disorder can we imagine that our Souls would have crept out of these Bodies For in this case they would have been dragg'd like Apprehended Malefactors to that separate state whither they go when they leave the Body as to a Gaol over which the Devil has the power For according to St. Paul's Expression he has the power of Death Heb. 2.14 i.e. Death would have deliver'd our Souls into his hands as a condemn'd Criminal is put into the hands of an Executioner They would have been consigned over to him who has the power over that State whither Death sends us And oh with what Vexation and Anguish would they have been tormented to think that all this was come upon them by the just Judgment of God! Think with how much shame a Man that was born to a plentifull Estate appears among Men or is haled to a Prison when by his Folly he has reduced himself to Beggary and Rags and the common Reproach of all that knew him is See the Man that has undone himself by his Extravagancies And how much more grievous would it have been to us had not Christ by dying and rising again taken away our Reproach to have been pointed at by Angels when we had gone into the other World without the Bodies that by the Law of our Creation we were appointed to live in and when we had fall'n under the Power and Dominion of Evil Spirits to have had it said of us That we were the Spirits of Men and had brought our selves into that Condition by our own Folly and want of Consideration But Christ by Death has destroyed him that had the power of Death
it was extinguish'd For how is it possible to conclude there will be a Resurrection because the Soul lives in its separate state if the Resurrection means no more than that the Body shall come out of its Grave and that a new Soul shall be breathed into it Our Blessed Lord undoubtedly meant when he urged this to prove a Resurrection That the Soul which after Death subsists without its Body shall come out of its state of Death as well as the Body because it is still alive And by being united to the Body again have a new way of subsisting after Death which second state of Men is that which as the Learned Hammond observes is implied in the Resurrection Obj. If it be enquired how we can be said to rise again if the Soul as well as the Body be not laid to sleep Ans I Answer 1. That the Resurrection does not only import a restoring life to that which is dead but the giving us another kind of subsistence than that which we have after Death has separated the Soul from the Body So that though the Soul does live after Death yet it does not live as it will do after the Resurrection It lives in a separate condition from the Body when Death has broken the Union but the Resurrection will restore it to its ancient way of subsisting in a Body And therefore 2. The Resurrection does respect us as Men and is for the restoring us that Humane Life which we are deprived of by Death For though the Soul does live yet it is not the Soul alone that is the whole Man And as we are said to die when the Soul leaves the Body though the Soul still lives in its separate state so we are said to rise again when the Soul that is Immortal and does not cease to live when it is gone out of the Body is reunited to the Body again And now if the Resurrection does imply our returning from a state of Death and recovering a new life or the bringing the Soul out of its place of confinement to its own proper Habitation Before I proceed let us consider what Reflections this furnishes us with And 1. We may hence inform our selves of the true nature and meaning of Death And this is very necessary to be done that we may not despise and give way to mean and contemptible thoughts of it as if Dying carried nothing in it that was frightfull and amazing It is certain that those of the Heathens whose Names are transmitted down to us for the gallantry of their Minds have generally gain'd this reputation from the slight opinion they had of dying For it was reputed among them as a generous heroick Act to lay violent hands upon themselves and by a draught of Poyson or a sturdy Abstinence to put an end to their own Lives when their Designs and Interests did not prosper according to their Minds or they were in danger of falling by a publick Executioner Now that which brought this way of Dying into so much credit with them was their not knowing what Death is They either were persuaded that nothing of us remains after Death or if they had some dark Notices that the Soul does survive they spoke very doubtfully of it and were altogether ignorant how it lives when it is gone out of the Body but did believe they did themselves a mighty service when they thus escaped from a Temporal misfortune And thus it often happens still that Men when their Affairs succeed ill revenge their ill fortune upon themselves and die rather than feel the smart of their Calamities This is chosen as a Refuge from threatning Ills and fled to as a Remedy of present Pressures But yet both the one and other of these are to be pitied The former because they were governed by a belief that the Soul while it is in the Body is a Prisoner and that it vanishes into nothing when it is let out And the other because a clouded Mind betrays them to desperate Thoughts But besides these there are others that think lightly of Death for no other reason but because they think it a glorious thing to die like a Roman without discovering any signs of fear Such I mean who account it a bravery of Mind to out-face Death who are govern'd by no other Principle than a supposed baseness in Fear and therefore are resolved not to tremble although they know not but that they for ever lose all that they account dear to them This is a Temper that is of great account in the World But what greater baseness is it to fear losing that which we love and cherish than to love and desire that which we account good for us For my part I do not understand what great Vertue there is in living fearless of Death or in being able to meet it without a dejected look or undauntedly to expose a Man's self to the danger of it what-ever horrid shape it appears in if he who thus despises it has nothing out of this World that he can love or take pleasure in especially when we consider that it is as natural to fear that which is hurtfull and destructive to us as to love that which is good and beneficial There is I know a contempt of Death which is a noble Vertue but it is only that which Religion does work the Mind to For he who knows he shall live again has a great deal of reason to be fearless of dying But what account can that Man give of his slight opinion of Death who as little thinks of another Life as he seems regardless of Death and who while he resolves not to fear Dying thinks not and perhaps does not believe he shall rise again These Men undoubtedly know not what it is to die otherwise they who have all the reason in the World to fear it would never make it a Vertue not to be daunted or unconcern'd at it For 1. Death has not only a respect to our Bodies It is not only the closing our Eyes and stopping our Ears and tying our Hands and Feet and the rendring the several Members of our Bodies uncapable of performing the Functions of Life any more It is not the depriving this Earthly Machine which now we see to move and which we feed and cloath with art and care of all sense and motion If Death was nothing else but this I mean if all the hurt it did us respected the Body only such as the letting out our Spirits and congealing our Blood and the turning the Body into a Carcase and sending it to a Grave perhaps it might be as easie a thing for a Man to be fearless as a Beast is inapprehensive of it For why should a Man be more averse to dying than a Brute if he has nothing more to lose But when we cannot cure our selves of that Aversion we have to Death but by Religious Considerations which is the way that good Men take or by hardening our Minds
and by going to the place of separate Spirits has taken possession of it as his own Kingdom in right of his Conquest over the Devil And the Resurrection he has assured us of will free us from our shame For then Death will be swallowed up of Victory and we shall appear in the World and live like our selves again This will be the day of our Triumph and Joy when that which is sown in dishonour and weakness shall rise in glory and power And because we go out of this World with the expectation of a Resurrection we may appear before the Inhabitants of the invisible World without any dread or shame because we shall there live in hope under the protection of a mercifull Redeemer 4. This may inform us of the Difference between this Life and that we shall then live We shall live in the same Bodies indeed but not in Bodies that carry such marks of dishonour and shame in them as now they do nor such a Life as now we live For the great difference between them is this That now our Bodies are frail and brittle and we carry the great valuable Treasure of Life in Earthen Vessels that are subject to decay and which erelong will be broke to pieces and lose the Treasure that is put into them But then they will be purified to a Heavenly frame and no longer subject to those innumerable Chances that beat upon and at last break them down Here it is only that little scantling of Life which Sin and the Divine Wrath have left us that we enjoy but there we shall have that full portion that God in our Creation set before us and what through the Redemption of his Son we are restored to the Hopes of Here we live subject to a thousand Miseries and Infirmities and are put to daily trouble to repair the decays of a corruptible Nature and at last after all the supports and refreshments of Meat and Drink or the Remedies of Physick our Spirits run off and the Grave becomes our Habitation But then we shall have a Life unless by our own folly we treasure up so much Wrath as will not suffer us to live and we our selves carry Misery along with us a Life I say that no Sorrow shall embitter no Wants weary and disquiet with Labour and Solicitude and which will be able to sustain it self for ever without any of those Succours and Remedies that our present Necessities call for There will be none of that thoughtfulness for to morrow which now often breaks our Rest and embitters our Lives no sweating for Bread to maintain Life nor any of those Anxieties which here the fears of losing what we have do perplex us with For there the Reason of all this will be taken away because we shall then enter upon a World replenish'd with all that Humane Nature can desire and the Life we shall live will have none of those Exigences that suppose imperfection in us That which makes this Life so full of vexation and sorrow is the Curse that is come upon our selves and that which is come upon the Earth for our sakes For it was but fit that the Earth should be changed when Sin had alter'd the Nature of us that were to live upon it And since a Mortal and Corruptible Creature must live a Life of Sorrow and Labour it was requisite the Earth should be despoiled of that fertility that gave innocent Man an easie Maintenance and be Cursed to bear Briars and Thorns for a Creature that was to fetch his Food out of it with Sweat and Sorrow Now what wonder is it that the Life of Man which is not to be sustain'd but by his own Labour should begin to be over-run with Cares and Solicitudes when that fertility which fed him with Ease began to leave the Earth and instead of the Fruits of Paradise he saw Briars and Thorns spring up all about him 'T is Natural when our Bread fails and we see a scarcity of Provision begin to appear to have our Cares heightned and our Heads fill'd with Thoughtfulness So that our Solicitudes and Anguish for the things to sustain Life are but like the scramblings of Children when they are afraid the things they value should all be snatch'd from them For when the Earth began to fail Man of that plentifull and easie Provision with which in Innocency he was fed it is no wonder that like Men afraid lest the whole World should fail us our Desires grew impatient and made us restless and thoughtfull But now in the other World when we live again we shall not want the things that are needfull to us now and all that we shall need to make that Life perfectly Happy will be abundantly provided for us Then the Curse that took away our Blessings will it self be taken away And the New Heavens and New Earth that God will then create will no more be an occasion to us of those vexatious Solicitudes that the Poverty of this World begets in us than any Exigencies in our Nature will We shall rise with Bodies renewed i.e. Freed from all the ill Consequences of our first Apostasie and we shall live in a World renew'd too i.e. Freed from the Effects of that Curse that brought forth Briars and Thorns in it I mean which is the Cause of all the Miseries and Sorrows of this Life For they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead can die no more for they are equal unto the Angels Matt. 26.36 What that means we cannot tell because it is little that we know as yet of the state and condition of the other World But this it teaches us That we shall be Immortal and live just such a Life as they do Not such a Life of Labour and Toil and Misery as now we do because the Curse that is the cause of it will then be taken off 5. Let us consider how much Reason we have to prepare our selves for another Life Life is so valuable a thing to us that we judge it worth all the tiresome Journeys we take and the irksome Labour we are at to lay up something for the sustaining of it 'T is for the sake of Life that we even chuse to Drudge our Bodies in continual Toil and to expose Life it self to very great Dangers For had we none of those wants that put us to pain and create Thoughtfulness in us could we live without Labour and Industry we should chuse to sit still and to enjoy Life with ease And if we are content to undergo so many Hardships for a Life that is Mortal if we believe there is a Necessity upon us to follow our Callings and to be intent upon our worldly Interests that we may provide those Necessaries of Life without which we shall certainly die and which when we have them will not long preserve the Lives we labour for With how much greater care ought we to lay up
they wisely took care that they should not be imposed upon by a false report that he was risen from the Dead For they came to Pilate saying Sir we remember that that Deceiver said while he was yet alive After three days I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulchre be made sure untill the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people He is risen from the dead so the last Error shall be worse than the first And accordingly they made the Sepulchre sure setting a watch and sealing the stone Matt. 27.63 64 66. Here was as much care taken to prevent a Cheat as was possible But that which they design'd as a means to prevent any such Report is a strong confirmation of the Truth of it For now we are assured that his Disciples did not steal him away because they could not They might with more probability and better success have reported this story had they been less cautious to prevent the believing it to be true So that since after all this they spread this report That his Disciples came by Night and stole him away which they took so much care they should not do they have furnish'd us with a good Reason to believe that they themselves were persuaded that he was Risen And this I shall endeavour to make appear by considering the several Circumstances of the story They that were appointed to guard the Sepulchre were sensible of the Earthquake saw the Heavenly Messenger that rowled away the Stone and being affrighted thereat hasted to the City and gave an account to the Chief Priests of all that was done Those very Persons whom they had employ'd as Ministers of their Spight and Envy to prevent such a Report are employ'd by God to be the first Messengers of his Resurrection And when their own Servants and Ministers did attest this to them they could not except against them as Interested persons And indeed the course they took to stop the Souldiers mouths does prove they were convinced in their Consciences that he was Risen For why did they give Money to them to report so improbable a story That he was stollen away by his Disciples Which if we suppose true why did they hire them to report it Every dis-interested person would conclude they rather deserved to be punish'd for their Negligence than rewarded for their Service And to have had somewhat else given them rather than Money if they were of that bad mind that they would not speak the Truth unless they were bribed And if it was not true this very Action of the Priests in suborning the Souldiers to suppress the Truth with a Lye does prove they were convinced that what the Souldiers told them was true else there would have been no need of a Bribe to suppress their Testimony But as to the Report it self How improbable is it that his Disciples who fled from him when he was taken by the Jews should of a suddain take so much courage to attempt such an Enterprize What can we suppose should induce them to it What advantage would his dead Body be to them that they should venture upon an Armed Band to take it away The Reason why they followed him when he was alive was because they trusted it was he that should restore the Kingdom to Israel but when he was dead they had given up all these hopes The only Reason that a Jew can give for this bold attempt was a design to draw the People after them and the more easily to make themselves to be followed And therefore the better to accomplish their purpose they took the Dead time of the Night while the Souldiers were asleep This is a story that sufficiently discovers how weak and indiscreet Malice is For there are a great many things that make it appear the Publishers of it never consider'd what they said or how it was possible to make it good For it will hardly gain credit that Souldiers Men inured to Watchfulness should be negligent in so important a business Or if this be supposed That all of them should be taken with Sleep just at the same time Or if they were That the Disciples should know it Or if all this be supposed That a thing of this nature should be done with so little stir A Sepulchre broken open and a Body carried away with so little noise as not to awake one of the Guard But that which will most pose an indifferent person to conceive is That the Souldiers should be asleep and yet know that his Disciples stole him away If they were asleep how could they know this And if they did know so much who can believe they were asleep when it was done All this serves for nothing more than to convince us of the Truth of our Old Proverb Lyars had need have good Memories And that they who set this report on foot had somewhat else in their Eye than to tell Truth The particular improvement of this I shall wave till I come to consider what that assured Principle is which the Resurrection of Christ does furnish us withall for the grounding our Hopes of a Resurrection upon SECT II. II. I come now to consider by what Power he rose And this I shall do because the Scriptures seem to speak variously of it sometimes that it was by the Power of his Father and at other times that it was by his own Power St. Paul Rom. 4.25 speaks in such a manner as if it was not by his own power but by the power of another that he was raised He was raised again which implies that the reuniting his separated Soul to his dead Body and the restoring him to life again was effected by the power of another and not by his own And accordingly St. Peter speaks more plainly that it was God that raised him up Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death Act. 2.24 Which he intimates to us in applying that of the Psalmist to his Resurrection Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption v. 27. And again This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses v. 32. which is very loftily expressd by St. Paul Ephes 1.19 That we may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of the might of his power which he wrought in Christ whom he raised up from the dead But although we are taught that he was raised and that it was God that did raise him yet we are in other places of Holy Scripture assured that he did raise himself and that it was by his own Power that he rose Destroy this Temple saith he of himself and in three days I will raise it up This he spake of the Temple of his Body Joh. 2.19 Some suppose that Christ did nothing more in the raising of himself but lift himself up and come out
is a reasonable and necessary Duty because there can be no Religion at all without it And the believing the Principles of Revealed Religion is as reasonable and necessary because there can be no Christanity without it By Revelation we have a plainer account and a more distinct and certain Knowledge 't is true of all the Principles of Natural Religion than we could have it and in this respect it is of great use for the furthering that Piety and Holiness without which we cannot see God nor live an Immorral life But it was not for the making these things known only that God sent his Son into the World For though it was necessary that when he would once more make a trial of our Faith and Obedience to him he should rectifie those mistakes that we were run into concerning the first Principles o Religion yet it was first of all necessary that he should put us into such a condition that the hopes of succeeding in our Endeavours after Holiness might be an encouragement to us Now this is the thing that he has Revealed to us in the Gospel and 't is the being persuaded of this astonishing Mercy that is the Faith which Christianity presses upon us And besides considering our present Circumstances the belief of the Principles of Natural Religion is not enough for us who have corrupted our Nature This Faith was suited to the state of Innocent Man before he was doom'd to a Mortal Condition But since we feel our selves Mortal and know we must die what encouragement can our knowing there is an Immortal state for such as improve themselves for it be to us to aspire after it when we know we are Mortal and cannot avoid dying Surely something more is needfull to encourage us to do our utmost to prepare our selves for it than the Faith that was the foundation of that Religion whereby Innocent Adam was to have made himself Immortal because we cannot become Immortal as he might have done For unless we believe that we shall live again though we die we are so little concern'd in that Life that is Eternal that we shall never upon the bare believing there is such a Life and that Man was made for it be persuaded to the Practice of Holiness because such a Belief does not persuade us that there is such a Life for us The Soul 't is true is Immortal and will live for ever after Death has separated it from the Body But for ought that any Man knows 't is so much the worse for us that it is if it must always live in such a state as is not Natural to it For it is very plain that it leaves the Body with a great deal of Reluctancy And I don't believe that they who are no friends to the believing the Doctrines of Redemption and Justification as they mean our being restored to the Hopes of a Resurrection by the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ are such friends to Death that they part with their Bodies very easily And this I think proves that they could be very well content that their Bodies were as Immortal as their Souls and that they might live an immortal life in their Bodies It is not the Soul's Immortality that contents them however they may seem to put a good face on 't and make a Vertue of Necessity For they look upon Death as a great Calamity at least which no Man could do was he persuaded that Death would put him into his best State and Condition Now what does all this mean but that a Resurrection is very acceptable to us and that without it we in our Circumstances cannot have that Immortality which Adam by the Principles of Nature was encouraged to hope for I dare say that they can be very well contented that God would raise their dead Bodies again so improved as we believe he will And upon what account then can they except against the Reasonableness of that Faith which they can be contented should be true and own to be necessary to make the belief of another State a compleat and sufficient Motive to a Holy Life The Apostle observes that without Holiness it is impossible to please God and therefore that he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And accordingly he gives us a large Catalogue of brave Men that by Faith subdu'd Kingdoms wrought Righteousness and obtained the Promises Which implies that we shall never be persuaded to deny our selves the present Enjoyments of this life and keep our selves within the measures and bounds of Religion unless we believe there is another Life and a God that will reward us there And therefore so much Faith as this is was a Duty that Adam while he was Innocent was obliged to because though he was Innocent he was a Probationer for Immortality And it was requisite that he who was a Probationer for Immortality should believe there was such a State and that there was a God that would reward him with it if he did improve himself to the perfection it belong'd to for the encouraging him to do his Duty But so much Faith as was sufficient to encourage an Innocent Man is not enough for us who are guilty and condemn'd to die because we are so For Innocent Man might by improving his Nature i.e. by doing his Duty make himself Immortal But we who are guilty and condemn'd can do no such thing because we are not in a state of Trial if we be not freed from the Curse that is upon us And that which is needfull to put us into such a state must be a part of our Faith if we do believe that we have a prospect of Immortality i.e. We must believe that God has justified us that we may apply our Minds like Probationers for Immortality to that Improvement of our selves that is to qualifie us for it 4. This is a further Consideration that ought to reconcile us to the Thoughts of leaving this World I have observed with how much satisfaction we ought to go out of this World because the Resurrection will restore us both our Souls and Bodies again i.e. Will bring our Bodies out of their Graves and our Souls out of that place where they live in a Praeter-natural state out of their Bodies But the thoughts of our being in a Justified state ought to raise our Minds much higher and to fortifie them with more Resolution and Courage when we come do die because it sets before us the Reason and Ground of our Hope and eases our Minds of that which is the most stinging Consideration in Death Death is as I have said very terrible to us upon many accounts It hales us out of a World that cloaths us with solt Raiment and gorgeous Apparel and feeds us with rich and sumptuous Delicacies and furnishes us with delights for the Eye and Ear and every Sense All which must be very troublesome